Lee's Promise
by blackbeltkunoichi
Summary: Sakura/Lee one shot. Lee sits alone in the clearing he trains in when along comes Sakura...


All right! This is a Sakura/Lee one shot. It's a little long, I think. Standard disclaimers, I own nothing Naruto, blah blah blah. See if you can spot the little nugget of wisdom from To Kill a Mockingbird! Seriously, though, I thought it tied in well. Enjoy!

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These were the times when Lee hurt the most.

The times when he struck the log with such force that it sliced right through the bandages and rent the flesh beneath.

The times when his muscles ached to the point where they wouldn't respond and Gai-sensei had to carry him home.

The times when he could think only of Sakura and of defeating Neji that he wouldn't notice his physical pain until he collapsed.

This was one of those times.

Lee was perched steadily on top of a large, flat rock, examining his arms and hands. He had overworked himself yet again, for blood was beginning to seep through the bandages and drip rhythmically on the ground.

Drip, drip, drip.

"If I do not stop this bleeding, I must run five hundred laps around the academy," he said, invoking self-rule as always. He applied rough pressure with his other hand to his arm, but the resulting pain made him call out. "Itai! I promise on this pain, I will defeat you, Neji-kun. On this pain, I promise... Sakura-san, I will protect you," he stated.

All was quiet for a moment.

"Sakura-san..." Lee repeated mournfully. Why was her eye so fixed upon Sasuke?

_"You're too 'unique' for my tastes." _Sakura's words echoed mercilessly in Lee's head. What did Sakura-san mean by that? 'Too unique.' If it wasn't beneath his dignity, Lee would have scoffed at the remark.

_That is why I must train harder! One day, I shall surpass Sasuke-kun in Sakura-san's eyes,_ Lee declared to himself.

"Lee-san?" came a voice, slightly muffled.

_I am imagining it. That was not Sakura-san's voice; it was only wishful thinking,_ Lee thought.

"Lee-san!" came her voice, clearer and more concerned-sounding this time.

"Sakura-san?" Lee questioned, looking in the general direction of where her voice had come from. She was there, all right, looking tough as nails from her training under Tsunade-sama and hurrying to him. "Sakura-san, it is late! How did you find this place?" he inquired of her.

"Does it matter? You're hurt, Lee. Lie down," she said.

"Sakura-san, I..." Lee began, but Sakura cut him off.

"Lie_ down_," she commanded, shoving him off the rock and pushing his head to the ground in one motion.

_She has grown strong,_ Lee observed as he groaned aloud from the impact. Sakura gasped, seeming to realize how rough she had just been.

"Gomen nasai, Lee-san," she said, with as much gentleness in her voice as was humanly possible. She began to tenderly unwrap his arms.

"Sakura-san-"

"I need to get at the skin, Lee," Sakura explained. The blood had started to congeal and the bandages were stuck on some places, but Sakura took even more care to not cause Lee any more pain.

The great care and tenderness Sakura was exhibiting only served to increase Lee's confusion. _Why is Sakura-san acting this way? Could it be possible that she..._

"Sakura-san..." Lee started for the third time.

"Eyes closed, Lee; this one's going to hurt," Sakura warned gently. Lee did as he was told.

"AHHH!" Lee cried out as intense pain wracked his arm. His back arched and his whole body contracted and writhed with the pain.

"I'm sorry! That was the last one, though. Oh, Lee-san..." she trailed off, looking over his horrendously injured forearms and hands. Bruises exploded in spectacularly mangy colors, ranging from a deep purple to sick green-yellow combinations. The flesh itself was mangled in every way possible, and monstrously long cuts were bleeding freely and openly, their edges jagged and irregular. The crimson red blood stained his beautiful skin.

"Kami, Lee, it looks like Gaara got to you again. What in the world do you do that gets your arms like this?" she questioned, forming seals as she spoke.

"I train, Sakura-san," Lee responded simply.

"Hup!" Sakura called out. Chakra flowed over her hands and she grasped Lee's hands, beginning the healing process. "I can't be here to save your butt every day," she mumbled.

"Sakura-san?" asked Lee.

"Hmm?" she answered, moving on to his wrists.

Her chakra felt so warm, so comforting.

"Why are you doing this for me, Sakura-san?" Lee inquired.

There was silence for a moment, save for the chakra flow from Sakura to Lee. Sakura shifted closer to him, moving her healing hands up his forearm to his triceps.

"It's my duty as a med-nin," answered Sakura. Well, that was obvious. Lee couldn't get much out of that. "I watch you train every day, Lee... and, I think you deserve something nice for a change," she continued.

"You have watched me train, Sakura-san?" asked Lee.

"Yes," Sakura answered. "Actually, I was attempting to learn better taijutsu by watching. Special orders from Tsunade-sensei. She thinks that better taijutsu will help with my evasion skills. There, Lee, I'm finished healing your arms," she said.

Lee sat up and opened his hip pouch, digging around for fresh bandages. Sakura watched his search, noting the absence of any scrolls or summoning seals. It was then that Sakura started to admire Lee. The use of scrolls and kuchiyose were ninjutsu, which Lee couldn't do.

Lee had true courage, Sakura decided. Courage wasn't a man making seals; wasn't a prodigy of some famous clan doing amazing things. Courage, Sakura decided, was knowing you were defeated before you began but trying your hardest anyway. Like Lee. Because Lee couldn't do ninjutsu or genjutsu, he was already defeated before he could even start ninja training, but he persevered. He kept trying even though he _knew_ he would always be miles behind everybody else. _That_ was true courage.

Sakura liked Sasuke, the wrong guy, for the wrong reasons. She had always thought that Sasuke was the epitome of courage and strength. Sasuke was always the cool one, the one who never lost his temper or a battle. He was invincible to Sakura. Looking at him now, in this way, Sasuke was just a shallow poser who never felt anything for anyone.

Lee loved with his whole being with no holds barred. This showed in how openly he loved Gai, but that was different. Could Lee love Sakura? The answer was a very obvious and resounding 'yes'. Could Sakura love Lee, though? Did she want to? The answers hid deep within her now muddled heart, and she couldn't find them.

Lee appeared to be blissfully unaware of Sakura's current inner chaos. He was busy re-wrapping his arms. Though healed, they were still tender. He finished off by wrapping his fingers, glancing up at Sakura as he did so. She seemed... distant somehow.

"Sakura-san? Are you all right?" he inquired, paused in his reach for the other roll of bandages. Those distant green eyes snapped back into the present.

"Here, Lee, you're the patient, I'm the med-nin; let me do that," she directed, snatching the second roll of bandages and beginning to wrap the other arm. Lee remained silent as she worked. She wasn't being rough, but the gentleness from earlier was absent. She had to have something on her mind.

The time came for her to wrap his hand and he set it as a test for Sakura; a test to see what her intentions were by doing this. She had successfully confused him thus far.

Because Lee had been constantly ostracized and made fun of because he couldn't use ninjutsu or genjutsu, he knew how to read what people were thinking by their facial expressions and actions. Sakura may have been trained by Tsunade-sama but times often occurred when she could be read as easily as a book. This was not one of those times, for she was trying very hard to not show any emotion, but Lee saw right through it.

The way she was handling wrapping his hand was not in the detached way of a medical nin, but it wasn't lovingly, either. Lee discerned that she did, indeed, care about him, but she was also currently trying to decide to what extent she cared about him. Lee gleaned all of this by the way she hesitantly, carefully wrapped his hand, the delicate way she held his arm to keep the bandages straight. She manipulated his arm and hand the way a child would hold something extremely fragile, touching the skin but just barely, as if applying pressure would break it.

She finished with the speed of one of Tsunade's slugs walking from Konoha to Suna, as if she really didn't want to finish at all. It dawned upon Lee how old they were right now. Both Lee and Sakura were sixteen now. Both had survived through life-or-death situations, and both could easily die tomorrow.

"Sakura-san..." Lee started. "Do you remember three years ago, when you first told me that I was too 'unique' for your tastes?"

Sakura nodded, beginning to get an anxious edge to her. She reached up and began obsessively straightening her hitai-ate, displaying nervous energy.

"What do you... think of me now?" he asked, leaving the daring question hanging in the suddenly thick air that had developed between them.

Her nervous energy broke.

"Lee-san, I honestly don't know! I've just done a large amount of thinking in a short amount of time and my brain has seriously died. Lee, I just... don't know," she answered shortly. She stood to leave and began to walk away.

"Please wait," said Lee as he slowly got to his feet.

"My promise from three years ago still stands today. Do you remember, Sakura-san?" inquired Lee.

"Yes, I do," responded Sakura. _'I will protect you to the end!' proclaimed a brave and fiery Lee the first time he saw Sakura._ "It makes me happy that your promise still stands. I care very much for you, Lee," she said. She turned and jumped into the trees. Lee watched with wonder and hope as the leaves swallowed up his precious person.


End file.
